Christ the King Sunday
November 22, 2015
2 Samuel 23:1-7; Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37
Or watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2P4d5Yeu64&feature=em-upload_owner
Or watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2P4d5Yeu64&feature=em-upload_owner
There’s a phenomenon among young families right now, you
may have noticed it, where it’s popular to call little girls “princesses.” And it’s not just limited to girls, I’ve
heard parents of little boys call their sons “princes.” I don’t know if Disney started this trend, or
if they’re just capitalizing on it, but the popularity of Disney princesses has
also skyrocketed. Now, if we take this
analogy a little further, and every child is a princess or a prince, then, on
the one hand, it makes it a little less special. Actual royalty is pretty rare; very few
people are born into or marry into royal families. There are very, very, very few princesses and
princes in the world. So, while the
nickname is intended to convey how special we think our children are, to quote
a Disney movie with no princesses,
“when everyone’s super… no one will
be.”[1]
In the movie, “The Incredibles,” the bad guy,
named Syndrome, makes inventions so that everyone can be a superhero, not just
those born with special powers. He wants
to make it a little less special to be a superhero. If every child is a prince or princess, if
every child is special, then it kinda weakens the meaning of the word
special.
The other conclusion we can draw from making our children
into princesses and princes is that it means we are kings and queens. We may feel like the servants or maids of our
princesses and princes, but in reality, if we’re their parents, then we’re
royalty as well. And we’re not fellow
princes and princesses, we’re kings and queens.
I think this speaks quite appropriately to the human condition, which is
that we don’t want to be subjects, we
want to rule! Today, the last Sunday
of the church year, is Christ the King Sunday, also called Reign of Christ
Sunday, and it reminds us that we are not, actually, sovereign and in charge of
our lives; Jesus Christ is. He is the
true King, and we are not. In the
history of the world, the vast majority of the people are subjects to the ruler
and not the ruler themselves. We want to
be in charge, we want to be in control, we want to determine when things are
going to happen and be the king or queen of our life. However, today serves to remind us that we
are not kings and queens. We do not
rule. Rather we are those who are
ruled. And the good news is that we’re
not ruled by an iron-fisted, heavy-handed dictator! We’re ruled by Jesus. He is our king, and he’s a good king. He is slow to anger and quick to
forgive. He loves justice and
mercy. He loves his subjects, he loves us.
God loves us so much, that he sent his Son, whose birth we’ll celebrate
in a few weeks. He sent his Son to walk
and live among us, to be here in person among his people. God isn’t a distant ruler who’s hard to
approach or hard to get an audience with.
He’s right here with us. That’s
how he rules us, by being right here among us, present with us. We are not the King or Queen of our own lives;
Jesus is, and we are his people.
Now, what we read in 2 Samuel was a speech King David
made at the end of his life. The end of
it is interesting because he talks about people who refuse to be ruled. It says, “Despicable people are like thorns,
all of them good for nothing, because they can’t be carried by hand. No one can touch them, except with iron bar
or the shaft of a spear.”[2] These are people who won’t be ruled, can’t be
ruled, unless you violently subject them with a weapon. They are described in Scripture as wicked
people, godless people, sons and daughters of rebellion, the devil’s henchmen.[3] Beloved,
don’t be these people. While
despicable has gained some positive associations with it, because of Daffy Duck
with all the slobber when he says the word and the movie, “Despicable Me,” with
Gru, who turns out to be quite likable for a super-villain; despicable really
means “deserving to be despised; regarded with distaste, disgust, or disdain;
contemptible.”[4] Despicable people won’t be ruled, by anyone,
other than themselves. Despicable people
are godless, because they won’t even follow God.
We,
however, are among those who follow Jesus.
We are among those who will submit to his kingship and rule. We are among those who recognize that while
we may not want to be subjects, that
is the appropriate place for us. [5] We submit to God’s will. We know that whatever God has planned for us
is better than the best that we can imagine on our own. We know we can rest in safety, when we rest
in God’s hands. When Jesus is King, then
we are not responsible for our own security.
God is, and he’s got it covered, as this phenomenal king. We’re told in the book of Revelation that
Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth.[6] He is the King of kings, and Lord of
lords. He is “the firstborn of all
creation,”[7]
“who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, who made us to be a
kingdom.”[8] Isn’t that interesting? Jesus made us to be a kingdom, his
kingdom. He created us, each and every
one of us, to be a member of his kingdom.
Not to be King or Queen of his kingdom, it’s kinda of like too many
cooks in the kitchen. If everyone has
their own idea of what should and should not be included in the recipe, and
everyone’s fiddling with the pot, it inevitably won’t turn out well. There’s only one King, and it’s Jesus, and he
made each of us and invited each of us to be part of his kingdom. So don’t be like those despicable, godless
people who say in their hearts ‘there is no God.”[9] Don’t be those people who won’t be ruled
unless forced to it by a weapon. You’ll
be sorely disappointed then, because that’s not how Jesus works. The only violence you will find in Jesus’
kingdom is the violence of love. To
quote Archbishop Oscar Romero, it is “the violence of love, which left Christ
nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome
our selfishness and… inequalities among us.
The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of
hatred. It is the violence of love, of
brotherhood, the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work.”[10] That’s the only violence you will find in
Jesus’ kingdom, not violence to make you subject to him, simply the violence of
love, that left Jesus on the cross for your sins and mine.
This is the Jesus we’re ruled by, this is King
Jesus. He is King, and we are not. Whew! You can breathe a sigh of relief now. [Smile.]
Our children may, or may not be, princesses and princes, but you are not
King, you are not Queen. There is a God,
and he is in charge. You don’t have to
plan all the little details, you don’t have to worry about everything and make
contingency plans. You can let things
be, you can put down the whole world you’ve been carrying on your
shoulders. Jesus the King says, “Come to
me, all you who are weary and who carry heavy burdens, and I will give you
rest.”[11] Sometimes this is physical rest, sometimes
it’s mental rest or emotional rest.
Whatever burden you’re carrying, if the holiday season is already overwhelming
you, if you’re dreading upcoming family dinners, or dinners without family
members who *should* be there, we have the King of love. And he says, come put down what you’re
carrying. You don’t need to worry about
that right now. Come and be, come and
sit at my feet and hear the old, old story again. Come rest.
Find your rest in me and you will be given new strength to continue
on.
At the Bishop’s Advent Day Apart this past week the
speaker was the President of Wesley Seminary, Dr. David McAllister-Wilson. One of the things he commented on was how we
live in the Age of Anxiety and that our worst fear isn’t that there’s a
wrathful, vengeful God, but that there is no God. He showed a clip from the movie “Gravity”
with Sandra Bullock where she’s floating out in space disconnected from her
spaceship and trying to reach Houston on the radio, but there’s no one
there. Our greatest fear, according to
Dr. McAllister-Wilson, is that we’re all alone, that there is no one out there,
no one is listening to us, all is meaningless, much like the author of
Ecclesiastes claimed. Brothers and
sisters, we gather together each week and at other times to remember that there
is a God. There is
meaning to life. We are not responsible for giving meaning
to our lives, Jesus does that. Shopping and
busyness do not give meaning to our lives, Jesus does. Other people, even princes and princesses or the rulers of this world, do
not give meaning to our lives, Jesus does.
He is the King. I am not. You are not.
And that’s the good news we have to share with everyone we meet. There is a God. You are not alone. God is listening to you. God loves you. I love you. Let us pray...
[1] “The Incredibles,” Disney
Pixar, 2004
[2] 2 Samuel 23:6-7, CEB
[3] 2 Samuel 23:6a, NRSV, GNT,
MSG, NKJV
[5] Interestingly enough, Loki,
the bad guy in 2012’s “The Avengers” movie, says something similar: “Is not
this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of
humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes
your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be
ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”
[6] Revelation 1:5
[7] Colossians 1:15
[8] Revelation 1:5b-6
[9] Psalm 14:1
[10] “The Violence of Love” by
Oscar Romero, 2004, p. 12
[11] Matthew 11:28
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